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Hey, how does our little city suddenly have 5 national best-selling authors?
David Hungate
The Roanoke Valley has a history of being writer-friendly, primarily because of the presence of Hollins University, which has been called “Pulitzer U.” Annie Dillard, Henry Taylor and, most recently, U.S. Poet Laureate Natasha Trethewey have won the U.S.’s top writing prize. They join luminaries like Margaret Wise Brown (“Goodnight Moon”), Lee Smith and Jill McCorkle in the Hollins inner circle.
In recent days, however, the literary line around Hollins has been breached. Major national books by Roanoke Valley-based authors Roland Lazenby, Sharyn McCrumb, Rod Belcher, Cece Bell and Beth Macy were published in 2016. Roanoke has produced moderately successful authors in the past, but never the quality and quantity that now exists.
Lazenby followed his red hot “Michael Jordan: The Life” with “Showboat: The Life of Kobe Bryant,” published in October, the same month Beth Macy marched on from her recent debut New York Times bestseller “Factory Man” with “Truevine,” another monster book, movie rights for which were gobbled up the day it came out by no less than Leonardo DiCaprio.
Lazenby has written more than five dozen books, mostly sports-related and many have been successful, but his national fame has grown since his book “Jerry West: The Life and Legend of a Basketball Icon” in 2010.
Macy, a noted reporter for The Roanoke Times for more than two decades, accepted Lazenby’s advice (and help finding an agent and publisher) in turning a newspaper story into “Factory Man,” which became a NYTimes bestseller and has been purchased by Tom Hanks to be turned into an HBO movie. Their conversation during a break at the Roanoke Regional Writers Conference resulted in the book.
McCrumb’s latest novel, “Prayers the Devil Answers,“ came out in April. She has been a popular national writing figure since 1984, producing 26 novels, the first “Sick of Shadows.” Her “Bimbos of the Death Sun” won a prestigious Edgar Award and in 2008 the Library of Virginia named her to the list of Virginia Women in History.
Belcher, who has almost quietly taken over the world of fantasy publishing, saw “Brotherhood of the Wheel” in stores in March and has a new three-book contract (one finished, another nearly so) due by the middle of 2017. Belcher, a former private eye and comic book store owner, spent years toiling as a freelance writer and little-noticed short-story writer before his breakout novel “Six-Gun Tarot” in 2013.
Children’s book author Cece Bell produced three books in 2016: “Ghosts, Inspector Flytrap (Book 1)”, “Comics Squad #2 (Lunch)” and “Inspector Flytrap in the President’s Mane is Missing (Book #2)”. Another “Inspector Flytrap” is due in January. She began her 18-book string in 2003 with “Sock Monkey Goes to Hollywood” and published the enormously popular “El Deafo” in 2014. Bell is deaf. She is married to popular children’s book author Tom Angleberger, whose books have sold nearly four million copies.
These authors were asked a simple question: How could the Roanoke Valley produce so many popular authors at the same time?
McCrumb: I’ve only met Beth, I think, so it’s hardly the New England mafia of Emerson, Melville, Hawthorne, Thoreau. And we’re in different fields of writing. Maybe you should test the water.
Lazenby: It’s an interesting question because getting published by a major house today is really, really tough, so the percentages for this relatively sparsely populated region per capita would seem to be striking.
The Hollins writers program plays a part. The (Roanoke Regional) Writer’s Conference plays a part in it. The Roanoke Times, The Roanoker and other regional media play a part. The South and its culture, too. The general overall livability of the Roanoke/Blue Ridge region plays a part. …
… The presence of Beth, Cece and Sharyn is a special, special thing for the region. Not only are their offerings over-the-top great, but they are role models for generations of aspiring young female writers. That may sound corny, but it’s really important. Better yet, there’s a group coming immediately behind them, writers like Liz Long and her contemporaries, battling their way through a murky and routinely confusing industry, a tough, tough business.
Bell: It’s a hot spot for everyone! Seriously, probably a lot of us grew up in the area and never really wanted to leave. This area is quiet, beautiful, and just radi-cool enough (without being pretentious) for the more introverted writers like myself. And who needs a writer’s retreat when you already live in a writer’s retreat?
Macy: I don’t think it was sudden, actually—we were all here plugging along, and hard, for many years. But it does feel good that so many of us are being recognized not just for our own writing abilities but for the fact that many of us write about this place, and try to bring honor and attention to it. I know I used to think, long ago, that you had to live in a big city to write big stories, but I think we’ve all thrown that notion on its rear, where it belongs.
Belcher: I think Roanoke, and many of the surrounding areas are a nurturing environment for creative people, artists, musicians, craftsmen, poets, and writers. I think it’s a combination of our amazing geography—the natural beauty and all the ways you can connect with that, those mountains that speak to the quiet parts of you and inspire, and renew.
Our size as a community and the cost of living here are major factors too in my opinion. Most folks who work in creative endeavors often can’t afford to pursue them. Roanoke and the counties around her are different. You can have a decent lifestyle, pay the bills, raise your kids and still have the energy and the means to chase your dream. I have no doubt in my mind, this community helped me as a writer.